New film honors Asheville's Urban Trail

Charlie and Ethan Searls and Evie Artman play on a pig sculpture, part of downtown Asheville's Urban Trailin 2012. The Urban Trail is the focus of a new city-commissioned documentary.(Photo: Citizen-Times photo)

Imagine Walnut Street in August: crowded sidewalks, music drifting from 5 Walnut into the street, shoppers and diners strolling, and locals trying to navigate the crowd. Today, it's a familiar summer scene.

But in August 1991, an aerial photo shows a very different Walnut Street. It's empty, save for a cluster of scruffy teenagers. The photo accompanies one of the first articles about Asheville's Urban Trail.

Today, the attraction that includes 30 art pieces and plaques is so familiar it's easy to overlook. But in 1991, it was a bold dream to bring hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of art to an underused downtown with an uncertain future.

A new documentary, "Walk into History: Asheville's Urban Trail," commissioned by the City of Asheville and created by local filmmaker and oral historian Erin Derham, tells the story of the volunteer-led effort to create the path that integrates art and local history into an attraction and educational experience. Although the city helped organize it, volunteers and donors provided most of the labor and money.

“One of the things that was really interesting to me is the collaborative relationship between public and private that had to take place in order for this to happen," Derham said. “Volunteers and private donations are what funded it, and for that to go on for decades, and for people to still have smiles on their faces talking about it, that’s rare.”

In other words, it's not unusual for these types of projects to be messy, fraught with personality conflicts and funding shortages, but by all appearances, this one wasn't, Derham said. Why is that?

"Asheville has some hardcore people here, people who just love where they live and are determined to make it better," Derham said. "This is another example of that. It’s people who really care about revitalizing downtown.”

The 14-minute documentary includes interviews with some of the volunteers, city officials, history enthusiasts and artists who helped create the trail.

“It’s a fantastic tribute to this collaborative public art piece that so many residents and visitors enjoy,” said Brenda Mills, manager of the City’s Public Art Program. “We are excited to premiere it, and look forward to partnering with the Asheville Downtown Association, which will use it as an online tool to continue to tell the story of the Urban Trail.”

"Walk into History" will get its first screening on March 8 before the City Council meeting. It will air on the City Channel (channel 193 on Charter Cable) at 4:44 p.m. It will also be available to stream during that time on Government Live TV, ashevillenc.gov/livestream.aspx.